I was banned from seeing the Samurai X live action sequel alone by my former workmates.  We all had our minds blown together a couple of years ago by the first film, and it only seemed fitting that we have our minds re-blown again together.  We – Abby, Nelva and myself – even made the effort to watch it in the same mall, despite the heavy Saturday morning traffic to Las Pinas.

Anywho, here’s the round-up of Keishi Otomo (Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Roman Tan)’s Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno .

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

The peace that the Meiji government, with the help of Kenshin Himura (Takeru Sato), formerly known as the infamous Hittokiri Batosai, is being threatened by a crazed ex-assassin that goes by the name of Makoto Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara).  Shishio, who was deemed “too dangerous for the new era” has survived the government’s attempt to burn him alive, with his right-man Sojiro Seta (Ryunosuke Kamiki) are planning to topple over the emerging stability that the administration is establishing.  Their forces have already annihilated hundreds of law enforcers sent to take them down, only leaving Hajime Saito (Yosuke Eguchi) alive to report back to the higher-ups.

The government, in a desperate move, enlists the help of Japan’s most famed killer, Kenshin Himura, to take Shishio down, pleading with him that Shishio only rose to power when Hitokiri Battosai left.  Unfortunately for Kenshin, this not only means leaving his new-found family at the Kamiya dojo – Kaoru Kamiya (Emi Takei), Sanosuke Sagara (Munetaka Aoki), Megumi Takani (Yu Aoi) and Yahiko Myojin (Kaito Ohyagi) – but also a test to his vow to never kill again.  He sets off to Kyoto, where Shishio is reported to attack, and along the way he meets and becomes allies with Makimachi Misao (Tao Tsuchiya), and her clan, led by the wise Kashiwazaki Nenji (Min Tanaka- 47 Ronin ).  On top of all of this, there is the clan’s disgraced member, Aoshi Shinomori (Yusuke Iseya), who is on the hunt for the Battosai himself.

THE GOOD:

1. Th budget.  From the get-go one will notice that this film obviously had a bigger budget.  Bigger sets, bigger props, more extras, the works.  While the first movie contented itself with shooting in forests and tranquil little rice fields, this movie went all out with building a whole new Kyoto as their playground.
2. The fight sequences.  Aah, how refreshing it was to watch decidedly un-Hollywood-ish fight scenes.  The film makers had a way of shooting the sequences in a very anime-like way, and as somebody who grew up watching the series, that was pretty fucking awesome.  Props also to their fight choreographer because despite the incredibly numerous sword fights, no two were ever alike.
3. The cast actually looked like their characters.  I’m guessing that the increased budget had a lot to do with it but damned if they didn’t look exactly like the cartoons.  I mean, look at Shishio for cripes’ sake.
4. Impeccable casting.  Was it me or were they all perfect for their roles?  It wasn’t just a matter of emulation, no, they actually embodied the spirits of the characters.  I loved how Munetaka Aoki’s Sanosuke was just the right amount of boisterous, that Ryonusuke Kamiki’s Sojiro was one creepy mofo and that Takeru Sato’s Kenshin can make that signature ‘Oro?’ believable. (my heart exploded when that was literally the first line Kenshin said in the whole movie).
5. Emi Takei’s Kaoru Kamiya was infinitely more bearable in the film version.  Instead of nagging at Kenshin, she was a whole lot quieter and relayed her pain through her eyes.  Sure, she still gets kidnapped in this movie, but you won’t hate Kaoru for it.
6. The gentle restraint the film makers had when they made this movie.  With the amount of the source material they had to work with, it would’ve been pretty easy to go crazy and stuff the movie with as much fanservice as they could, but major, major props to them for not going that route.  Each and every little thing included in the movie was obviously carefully considered and had to be there in order for the story to move forward.  I also loved that the film makers took their time in telling the story.  The movie was well over two hours long, but you don’t really feel it.

THE BAD:

1. The screaming little kid.  Gads, was he annoying.  And the thing is, everytime he cried, my mind goes to what it must have been like in the audition room for that role.  Did the film makers make hundreds of little boys wail?
2. Aoshi Shinomori.  I don’t remember Aoshi being quite this obsessed with finding Battosai.  Everytime he showed up on screen, I kept thinking ‘man, this dude needs somebody to slap him back to reality, HARD’.  Sure, there was that awesome fight scene with Yoda Min Tanaka, but in the end the character was just a big distraction.
3. The weird-ass facial hair.  What is this??

THE UGLY:

NONE.  It was a very good movie.

All in all Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno was an extremely good movie.  Although the whole film sort of felt different in tone from the prequel, it was obvious that the same amount of love and care and patience went to producing it.  With extremely good actors, an even better costume and make up department (with tons of money to burn), and extremely memorable fight scenes, this movie is just way too good to pass up.  Even the cliffhanger in the end was properly set up; none of the people walking out of the theater grumbled about being cheated to fork over cash to see another movie, because it promises to give something as epic as this one.

THE VERDICT: 9.5/10.  See it, see it, see it.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page Google search, because the IMDB page is basically useless.